BLOG 14

HAPPY MEALS

In the article “Happy Meals” Michael Pollan give us a few advice about how to eat better.  Some of them can be really useful and I think that my family and I could take his advice and change some things, but some of them are out of the blue.

           Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. When I was young my grandmother had a beautiful garden where she planted flowers, vegetables and fruits. Back then people didn’t go to supermarkets to buy food everything that they ate came from their own cultivation. Their food was fresh, healthy without any pesticides, antibiotics and hormones. Nowadays most of us don’t know where our food comes from and what it’s made of. So, if we want to be healthy we should take Pollan’s advice and don’t buy and eat anything that doesn’t look/taste like real food.

           Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. In New York City there are no farms where you can buy fruits and vegetables straight from the producer. The nearest farm market is an hour away from the city. When you are tired after work or school the last thing you want to do is drive a few hours to buy something to eat when the nearest supermarket is five minutes away from your home. Maybe “you won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market” compared to your local store, but we have influence on what we buy. Once in a while I can go to a farm market but this can be hard to accomplish everyday, that’s why I go to the supermarket.

Cook. If you can, plant a garden. Eat complete meals, at a table, if possible not alone. Eat slowly. I have so many things to do in my life that this part of Pollan’s advice is impossible to accomplish. Although I would enjoy having a garden it is really hard when you live in apartment especially in New York City. Besides, I don’t think that one garden could provide food for my whole family.  I don’t like to cook especially when I need to spend a few hours in the kitchen preparing a meal. I prefer to do other tasks that are more interesting than cooking. In addition, my family and I have a different schedule that’s why we cannot eat together. Everyone goes to work and comes back at various hours so eating at the table is not an option.